J.K. Trotter

Two of Washington's most prominent economics columnists spent Friday debating an issue that affects all Americans: whether the Beltway's collection of expensive restaurants truly caters to the appetites of the town's cognitive elite.

It's been an entire month since a hellacious swarm of extremely blue bikes, designed for the long-awaited Citi Bike program, descended on Manhattan and southwest Brooklyn — since which New Yorkers have biked the perimeter of Manhattan 70,445 times.

Brittney Cooper on Rachel Jeantel, Tricia Rose on the fall of Paula Deen, Michael Calderone on the NSA's sudden availability, Roger Cohen on Edward Snowden's place in history, and Amy Davidson on how to defend marriage.

Peter Fulham on the wait for justice, Frank Bruni on the power of the Supreme Court, Irin Carmon on the Democratic Party's abortion platform, Sadhbh Walshe on Texas's death row, and Jelani Cobb on the rise and fall of racial progress.

Among those who had closely followed the twists and turns of the legal case for gay marriage — in other words, the pundit class of Washington, D.C. and New York — reaction spanned the gamut of emotion: elation, relief, conviction, surprise, even peace. Of course, many were simply unfazed. And a few were resigned. Here's a guide to what they're saying.

The iPhone's stock signature, at first deemed a louche emblem of status, is now a a built-in forgiveness clause. Please don't judge me for any typos or spelling errors, "Sent from my iPhone" suggests. I am very busy.

Undoing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has fixated factions of America's right-wing political coalition for years, but on Tuesday, faced with a Supreme Court decision at once sort of agreeing with and still sort of stumping them, conservative pundits drifted to the margins of the ensuing conversation.

Brentin Mock on the future of the Voting Rights Act, Kat Stoeffel on the fate of seduction artist Ken Hoinsky, John McWhorter on the fall of Paula Deen, Bill Bradley on the proliferation of private transportation, and Jelani Cobb on Edward Snowden's global adventure.

It's not easy being a Stuy kid. In recent years, students at Stuyvesant High School, the crown jewel of New York City's Specialized High Schools, have been grabbed national attention for cheating, recording racist rap videos, and organizing an event called "Slutty Wednesday." The latest controversy to befall the elite public school is a bit less flashy — it's politics as usual.

Erik Wemple on Glenn Greenwald's journalism, Evgeny Morozov on the epistemology of big data, Massimo Calabresi on the legal status of Edward Snowden, Heather Havrilesky on Don Draper's self-knowledge, and Enrique Acevedo on protecting the U.S. border.

Jay Carney — former Time reporter, current White House Press Secretary, and weekly punching bag — has spoken for President Obama and his staff during the most fraught period of Obama's presidency. Here are the painful results.

The already-bizarre saga of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is approaching the plot of pulpy spy novel. Chen, who faces imminent departure from NYU after completing a year-long fellowship, was allegedly spied on using an iPad that was given to him as a gift upon arriving at the school.

Cronut capitalists — "industrious entrepreneurs who see plenty of dough to be made," as the New York Post describes them — have moved on to the much-hyped hybrid pastry waiting line straight from another one: the unemployment line. And it doesn't add up to much.

Michael Moynihan on the road to 1984, David Remnick on James Gandolfini's iconic role, Maria Arana on the new Pope's arrival in Brazil, Natasha Kumar Warikoo on the role of affirmative action, and Nick Hanauer on hiking the minimum wage.

Ben Smith on the legacy of Michael Hastings, Fergus Cullen on America's reliance on the sports-star immigration dilemma, Hadley Freeman on the domestic disturbance of Nigella Lawson, Margaret Carlson on Hillary Clinton's 2016 strategy, and Deena Shanker on the feminism of country music.

George Packer on the reach of Silicon Valley, Tim Shorrock on consolidating our spies, Leigh Alexander on the future of video games, Noreene Malone on Michael Bloomberg's composting plan, and Ramesh Ponnuru on the coming judgment of the Supreme Court.

The story of blind Chinese dissident and human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, currently a visiting scholar at NYU, has taken an all-too-familiar turn: Chen has reportedly fallen in with a group of strident religious conservatives who have persuaded him to accuse NYU (falsely) of evicting him.

Governor of Texas Rick Perry has some bad news for Texas women. On Friday afternoon, the one-time presidential hopeful notified several sponsors of a state bill addressing gender-based wage discrimination that he had vetoed it.

According to an alarming report published by The New York Times on Friday, reporters at the company were for decades not only permitted, but frequently and forcefully encouraged, to monitor potential story subjects with the terminal software's UUID function.

Yes, journalists: even you can get hacked. On Friday morning, a spokesperson for CBS News announced that veteran reporter Sharyl Attkisson's computer had been "accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012."

Kirsten Powers on the backlash to Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald on his long week, Francis X. Rocca on the new pope's relationship with Jews, Sherrilyn A. Ifill on the future of affirmative action, and Sasha Weiss on our age of online exposure.